The fellowship in question is a ‘diversity and inclusion’ fellowship, so it’s particularly ironic that they are accused of excluding people based on race.
The College Fix reports:
Country Music Association fellowship excludes white students: federal complaintThree universities are under scrutiny for their “Diversity and Inclusion Fellowship” with the Country Music Association due to its exclusion of white applicants.The fellowship at the University of Tennessee, University of Alabama and Belmont University drew a federal racial discrimination complaint under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.University of Michigan-Flint professor emeritus Mark Perry filed the complaint with the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights and shared a copy with The College Fix.Perry told The Fix via email that these three schools “are actively violating their legal obligation to enforce Title VI.”“In violation of Title VI, non-BIPOC students are illegally excluded from this program and discriminated against on the basis of their race, color, or national origin,” Perry wrote in his official complaint.Perry shared the complaint with the presidents of the three universities, hoping they will amend their program to include all students before the February 24 application deadline.He told the university leaders that once Perry’s complaint is acknowledged and evaluated by the OCR, he is confident the government agency will side with him. This is based on his past success filing “740 Title VI and Title IX [sex discrimination] complaints,” he said.In his email to the three universities, Perry encouraged them to have their legal teams “conduct an internal legal review of the BIPOC-only Fellowship program” to prevent further discrimination.
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